Thursday, March 06, 2008

Hi all. This show is all about London Heathrow Terminal 5. I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours earlier this week being given a guided (chaperoned) tour of LHR T5.

For the record, the building is amazing - deisgned by the Richard Rogers Partnership and opening on 27th March 2008 it's going to take London Heathrow into the 21st Century in a big way. Everything about LHR T5 is huge - from the 96 check in desks to the 18km of baggage belts... mind blowing.

I'm sure I've left stuff out so I suggest you go visit www.BA.com for the most up to date information. In fact it's essential you do so as the various terminals that BA uses at the moment are gradually transitioning over to T5 but some are NOT. Be aware of that and double check before you go to the wrong one!

Other bits of news are the new "enhanced" security checks for internal flights in the UK. I think Civil Liberties people should dig a little deeper here. Taking Liberty? You betcha. Listen for the low down.

2 comments:

The reason that BAA will give for the Finger printing etc. is that it allows them to mix international and domestic travelers in Terminal 5, avoiding the situation that is currently present when flying domestically from Terminal 1, where there are next to no facilites.

Yes, that's what they said on the tour of T5 I went on. I had two comments while I was there which were (1) why do we need to mix local with international travel? T5 is the ONLY airport globally (and I've been to a few!) which mixes the local traffic with the international traffic and (2) they have not been very public about this new "security" requirement. The rule is no scan - no fly. They SAY they will only keep them for the duration of the flight but what guarantee do we have that is actually what will happen. The secrecy / lack of publicity over this is a deafening silence of embarrasment - certainly the tour guide could offer no rational / reasonable explanation for it.

Now, if the reason is that the designers made a mistake and "forgot" that local and international flyers cannot mix then that's one thing. But. They aren't saying that. It's new security by the back door in my book and a massive infringement of my civil liberties. I don't want my iris scanned. I don't want my finger prints taken. Why should they want them?

Now, some might say "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear". To them I say back "If you've got nothing to hide then how much do you earn?". This is a security issue - but not for the reasons they give us. No. This is database creation by the backdoor.

I would encourage EVERYONE who reads this post to read Taking Liberties by Chris Atkins. If that doesn't scare you about the coming police state in the UK, nothing will.

Finally, if you can't be bothered / can't afford the book, then go to YouTube and watch the videos there. Just search "Taking Liberties".